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Ta Tarbut Faitlovitch - Centre for Ethiopian Jewish artists, creators and cultural entrepreneurs, in Tel Aviv
Ta Tarbut Faitlovitch - Centre for Ethiopian Jewish artists, creators and cultural entrepreneurs
The municipality of Tel Aviv has made Ta Tarbut Faitlovitch, the house of Yaakov Faitlovitz, available as a centre for Ethiopian and African artists. Manager Eliyah Maharat explained her vision: “This house is going to be an engine for the artist who will work here. A professional club, where they can work together, create and learn”.
Maharat missed African representation in the curriculum in her Art studies at Bar-Ilan University. In the ten years that she lived in Ethiopia, where her parents were born, she worked as a manager in African arts and culture. Now she wants to create room for Ethiopian and African art and artist is the rest of the world, starting in Israel.
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Yaakov Faitlovitz was a Jewish anthropologist who devoted his life to the Beta Israel community.
He studied Ethiopian language and travelled to Ethiopia eleven times between 1904 and 1946. During his first visit, he lived amongst the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) in Ethiopia for 18 months and studied their customs and beliefs. In his view the Beta Israel needed help to resist Christian missionary activity, because it was a threat to their Jewish community.
He raised funds for Jewish education in Abyssinia and he opened a Jewish school in Addis Ababa.
After his passing he left his library to the municipality of Tel Aviv. In honour of Faitlovitz’s legacy the municipality has now made his house available to the Ethiopian community.
Ta Tarbut Faitlovitch is opening in October 2024. It aims to provide workspaces for different kinds of artists; painters and sculptures, writers, and all other forms of artistries. There are induvial work spaces, professional spaces for making music and new media, a beautiful rooftop, washing facilities and hopefully in the future a library.
Ta Tarbut Faitlovitch is open to artists from Ethiopia and African descent in Israel, and is also inviting professional artists , experts and cultural organisations from all over the world . So if you are and artist and looking for a place to learn, create and collaborate, you are welcome to come to Ta Tarbut Faitlovitch, in Tel Aviv.
Manager Eliyah Maharat is an advocate for African art in Israel , expert in project management in the field of international development with emphasis of culture and innovation. She wants the Western world to learn about Africa through art.
"We should change the narrative, because Africa is the source of the universe”.
She also notices that Ethiopians in Israel don’t always have time for art, or to learn about art . There are many obstacles; being a minority, being an immigrant, being Black. But also having to learn the language, coming from a different culture. On top of that Israel is a new country; it only exists a few decades. And different smaller groups feel neglected.
When Eliyah Maharat was Cultural and international development manager of Israel in Ethiopia, she was already promoting the culture of her community. For example by collaborating with Michal Worke. This Ethiopian born artist came to Israel in 1984 on Operation Moses. She uses her art “to give Ethiopian-Israelis a platform and a voice”. She also aims to raise attention to the people of Ethiopian descent who were taking hostage by Hamas.
She painted several portraits of Avera Mengistu, one of the ‘forgotten hostages’. This Ethiopian man crossed the Gaza-border on September 7th, 2014. He has been interrogated by Hamas and has been missing ever since. The apparent lack of Israeli efforts to bring him back are reason for Michal Worke to keep addressing his case.
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Beta Israel, which means House of Israel in Amharic, is a Jewish culture and community of people originally from Ethiopia, specifically from the regions Gondar and Aksum. According to the Beta Israel tradition Menelik I, king of Ethiopia, is the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Some rabbis say the Beta Israel are descendants of Dan, one of the sons of Jacob.
Being called the lost tribe there were obstacles for the Beta Israel to be accepted by the Israeli society. Israel recognises Beta Israel as ‘official’ Jews since 1975 and two years later the Israeli authorities decided that the Beta Israel qualify for the Israeli Law of Return. This law gives Jewish the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship.
After that Israel started a large-scale effort bring the Beta Israel to Israel, in multiple waves. The Operation Brothers, which evacuated the Beta Israel community in Sudan between 1979 and 1990 (Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Joshua in 1985) and Operation Solomon in 1991 which airlifted Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
The Beta Israel community exists of around 180.000 people worldwide, with the largest community of over 165.000 living is Israel. Approximately 12.000 living in Ethiopia and about 1.000 in the USA.